Almost every surgical treatment carries a risk that bodily tissues exposed during the course of the surgery will adhere to each other, a condition termed an adhesion. Gynecological and abdominal surgeries, in particular, are prone to causing adhesions, which often have the appearance of scar-like masses. Adhesions are frequently painful and are a significant cause of infertility resulting from gynecological surgeries. Adhesions caused by surgeries are often called surgical adhesions.
One approach to the treatment of adhesions has been to coat surgically exposed tissues with a gel before closing the surgical site. Gels of various types have been used, including suspensions of colloidal particles, and pastes of natural polymers.
Hydrogels are especially useful for use in the body because they are more biocompatible than non-hydrogels and are thus better tolerated in the body.